DWIDSOfl, AUBO. INTKHVISW 1E506 - i l l

Transcription

1 DWIDSOfl, AUBO. INTKHVISW 1E506 - i l l

2 DAVIDSON, ALEC immtiw ' XBSO5 Janes Ruasell Gray, Investigator, December 20 f 1937* JJ An Interview with Mr* Alee Davidson, Hartshorne, Oklahoma. We don't have outlr-b like we did when I was a boy* I was born end raised in Texas " about thirtyone miles south of Delias, end the Indian Territory was a favorite hiding "'ace for outlaws then* ^hey would pull jobs there *» Texas, and then head for the ^territory and hide out* You've heard of Sam Bass? That was said to be a favorite sttint of his, a teal ing a bunch of horses or cattle tn& then lighting out for the Territory with the money after he sold the stock* I as. him and hie gang once, or at least people said it was Bass* It mast have been about 1885, for I was just a boy* I had gone hunting tliat day with my dad f s shot* gun, and I had six or seven mallard ducks.^nd three squirrels* Down on the creek nbout three miles from home I ran on to a launch of men camped* There were fifteen of them, all laughing, happygo-luoky fellows, und most of them young-looking'* They

3 DA7IDS0K, A&BC INTERVIEW Jihad a lot of extra horses* When they saw me they asked me to soil them ray squirrels and ducks; they gave me two dollars for them* ^hey cooked them right there, and I atayed for dinner and helped them eat the game* They had all kinds of rifles and pistols, and after dinner they practiced shooting Ht some empty tin cons* They let me shoot sons, too* Wbgn I got home that afternoon and told about the "hunters" my father said, "flhy, thot was Sam Base and hie gangj X heard In town that they were in this neighborhood* The Sheriff will be glad to hear this"* But when the sheriff and his men camo next day the outlaws were gone* There were so many horses and cattle stolen that people In our vicinity formed «n tmtithief society, or vigilante committee. One night an escaping murderer stole u neighbor*a horse, leaving hia own heif-killed animal In its place* The men of the neighborhood tracked him down and shot

4 182 DAVIDSON, ALEC\ 'INTERVIEW 12SQ5 him* Later on, pome of tl^ose Texans moved to Indian Territory f \ and they took their stern ideas of justice with them* X came to the ^Territory and settled et Hartshorne in 1903, and raany of\ my Texas friends were already in this vicinity* One vpn rjeraed fince Devis was running a cow ranch out east of Hartshorne, near Higgins. It was in the Geinea Creex bottoms* One night, in the summer of 1904, Vine lost three hundred head to ruatlere* He took out after them, trailing the herd by their tracks* \ hut he told ma about it afterward* I wasn't with him There were three of them; Vince, his ftsthor, and an eld fellow named Welle* They overtook the thieves just north of Tuskahone, i somewhere in the bills* There\wno «running fight, with three rustlers agoinst three hoaeot men* Vince end his companions killed two cf the rustlers,?-nd the other one left the cattle and got awoy. \ I don't mind telling this since all the men concerned «ire dead* There weren't many famous outlaws around here after I came/j this section was being settled\ fnat an account 0 / \ /

5 183 DAVIDSON, A EC INTERVIEW 'A - of the cool mines, and we had town marshals and United States Marshals* X remember one incident, though, that was right interesting* Nothing wonder* fol, possibly, but it go*s to enow thnt our modern "rackets" sren*t so new. after fill. It happened about 1904, just Hfter X came to the town* Joe Baker, who ^ea a partner of the firm of Baker and Rei&t, merchandise, received a threatening note telling him to take $1,500*00 and put it under & certain advert where the railroad crossed ninth Street* He was warded if he failed to do this, or if he told the officers, he would be burned out* 'Joe didn't tell the officers, but he told some of his friends, and we prepared a trap, J* C* wilcox, Jim Brazell, and I helped him* On. the night when the money was to be paid over we three got into my buggy and went to Eaileyrille* We found «switch engine th^re, «nd persuaded the engineer to help us* We climbed into «boxcar, and the switch engine pulled us over to the appointed crossing et Hartshornei then it left us there and went awey*

6 DAVIDSON,* ALEC. INTERVIEW about midnight Joe Baker camefa long with a handbag and.hid i t under the culvert. I t HBS nearly an hour after he left- that our nan. came for the money* fie cuffip BtrolJing along looking all around; he was auspicious or scared* He stopped right on the culvert and atood there looking around* Wilcox eot excjted end broke in too soon; he should have waited until the fellow sot the money, tout he didn't* He hollered for the man to put up his hands* we captured the nan easily, but of course we had to let him go Later because *»e didn't have any definite proof* Ike man was a miner, one of the foreign element that oame to these parts because of the coal* He was Polish, or maybe Lithuanian* J» C, wilcox felt bad because he had apoiled our trap. > Finally he got another idea* The ransom note, or whatever you would call it, h»d been written by t» womtin* And our suspect ftub living with a certain woman in a company house on the west end of town* iicox ran a grocery > nd seat market, and this man traded with hlrc. Wiloox got his delivery &o# to ssk the

7 185 DAVIDSON, LEC IOTEHVIEH* - 1B50B 6 - womatt to poy her bill before payday of the ioi&m«of course she would «ay that she couldn't until payday* ^J»a the boy vets to a ok her to write a note to Ms boss explaining. Well, this worked &«'slick eo.you plooao, and the note looked like the same writing na the other one* The woman was arrested end confessed, end the men got e jsil or pen sentence*